Mad World
by CannibaLilly
Summary: My very 1. Fanfiction / Ai though: "Conan's crazy, he really is,I know... but I love him." /Can love survive madness? / CoAi
1. The escaping murderer

_~~ "Love that is not madness is not love" ~~ "You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."** ~~  
><strong>_

_**Chapter 1: The escaping murderer**_

[Ai]

"Nooo! It wasn't my fault! I won't go to prison for that!"

The tall man in the old, grey suit was screaming at them.

Ai doesn't felt very well.

One reason for that was, because she could feel the pain in the voice of the man in front of them, a second one was that she and Conan were standing in an old house, all alone with a man who had just killed his best friend. And there was a third reason, she knew, but she just couldn't figure it out.

"But Kato-san" Conan tried to calm him "If you tell the police that you killed your wife in an accident, they'll maybe…"

"No!" Kato scream "it wasn't an accident, he was jealous, because she didn't want to leave me for him. He is a murderer, not me!"

Before Conan or Ai could say anything else, Kato was heading for the door, running away.

"Damn it!" Conan cursed.

"Where's my silly watch when we need it!"

"I told you I don't know, just let's go and call the police, at least…"

But before Ai could finish her sentence Conan smirked and head for the door, too.

"Don't worry Haibara" he shouted "I still got my shoes!"

"Don't be silly!" she shouted back, but she knew he couldn't hear her, not when he looked so 'detectivy'. The only thing he'd hear would be the steps of the criminal that he's following.

Sometimes she hated him for that, he left her here in this damn old room together with a dead body and a huge Iron rod which was the weapon Kato used to kill his friend.

"…_where's the iron rod?"_ she suddenly thought.

She started looking around the room, a chair, a book shelf, a window, a dead guy lying on the floor, a TV… but no rod.

"Shit!"

He must have grabbed it while they talked and Conan and she didn't recognize… or did he?

For a little moment she tried to calm herself _"of course __he__ saw it. It's him… but if not?"_

She really didn't want to follow them, but did she have a choice? What if he would attack Conan while she was waiting down here?

Hesitantly she went over to the door, then she swallowed all this thoughts of getting killed with a huge iron rod and ran up the fire ladder of the house which Kato must have used for his escape.

"Why do all criminals try to escape through a roof?" she gasped when she suddenly heard Kato's mad screams again.

"Get lost boy, or I will kill you, you know I would do that!"

"_Oh no!"_ Ai's heart suddenly felt like it was about to break through her chest _"so Kato-san really has the rod"_.

She just reached the corner from where she'd be able to see Kato and Conan, when she suddenly heard some horrible sounds.

Conan was trying to calm Kato; Kato screaming at him; some police sirens down on the street and then a dull smash followed by something hitting the floor.

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

Ai could barely remember the last hour, no matter how strong she tried, throughout all the years she just can't figure it out. Neither where the ambulance came from, nor where Kato got to, nor how she managed it to reach the hospital, while Conan lied bleeding beneath her in the ambulance.

Everything she remembered was herself ignoring all the sounds around her, repeating this one sentence in her mind again and again _"Conan-kun, please don't die…"_

The first thing, she could remember of that was when Ran and Kogoro reached the hospital. Ran pulled her away from the doctors and the mass of blood.

It all felt so similar to the day when Conan got shot, well except the fact that this accident today was _her _fault.

"He will be fine, he always is" Ran kept repeating and with every time she said it sounded even more implausible.

After some hours, Conan got out of the surgery room and everyone calmed down.

Kogoro, Ran and Ai where sitting down in a room they brought Conan to and Ai did her best not to look at him.

The hours past and no one seems to talk or move. Of course they all did. Agasa and the Detective Boys, they all visited the hospital while Ran, Kogoro went home and freshen up, but still, Ai felt like sitting in the chair near Conan's bed all day.

The 4th day after the "accident" (that's how they called it), another doctor visited the room, he checked Conan's condition, and told the others that he will be fine and his condition is really normal.

But how could that be true?

How could someone loose that much blood and be fine? How could not moving through 4 days be normal?

Ai really felt like giving the doctor a fine and normal slap in his face when Conan suddenly woke up.

Just like that, opening his eyes and looking around.

Everyone surrounded him immediately, staring at him while asking questions, trying to find out if he's really fine, but Ai stood aside.

The day passed. More doctors came and went, checking up on Conan, while Agasa and the Detective Boys came and went and then even Ran and Kogoro went out to catch their breath, leaving only Ai and Conan in that room that became some sort of a repellent home for both of them.

For a moment both just looked at each other, not knowing what to say, then Ai asked

"Are you really fine?"… _"how stupid"_ she though the first thing he hears from her, who left him alone, is the question he must have hear a dozen times today, but he smiled though.

"Yeah I'm fine, what about you? I mean did you…"

She interrupted him by turning around to hide her tears, of course he saw them.

She could feel astonishment suddenly fulfilling the room.

"Uhm… don't worry…?" he slowly said.

She just shook her head and then she turned slowly around to him.

She really wanted to say sorry, she really did, but he just smiled at her and mumbled...

"Gosh, why is everyone crying, I'm not dead, yet"


	2. Unforeseen consequences

_**Chapter 2: Unforeseen consequences**_

[Ai]

November came and went and with every degree that vanished, a bit more of their old "normal" life returned.

Conan could soon leave the hospital and he really seemed to be all right. On the 1th Of December he could even go to school again, what was, as Ai tried to explain him, not a bad thing.

"Ohayo, Conan-kun, Ai-chan!" the detective boys happily shouted and waved.

"Ohayo!" Ai shouted back, cheered by the happiness of the kids.

"Ohayo" Conan mumbled and looked even grumpier than before.

"Cheer up" Ai said smirking "they've missed you" she turned her head to look at him, but he didn't answer, he just looked at the children in front of them and Ai couldn't read his eyes… Usually she could, these blue eyes always seem to talk more than him. They sparkle when he was happy, they seem to kill you if he was angry, but now… they just looked at the kids.

They reached the kids and Ai tried to tell herself that he just were a bit tired, exhausted by this accident and being a child for such a long time, while they slipped over into a conversation about Kamen Yaiber.

"By the way" Ayumi suddenly interrupted "where's Mitsuhiko-kun?"

"Caught a cold" Genta answered, "he won't come to school for some days".

Ayumi sighted "everyone's getting sick or hurt" she looked down on the floor, nearly crying.

"Daijoobu „Ai said „Mitsuhiko will be ok soon and Conan survived, ne? "

Ayumi beamed "Yeah, at least we got Conan-kun back" she grabbed his arm and pulled him closed to her.

"_Sometimes I wish I could be that gushy and just hug him…"_ Ai though, but then she saw it again. This empty look in his eyes. He just let Ayumi hug him… Usually he tried to escape her arms…blushing embarrassed, but today he didn't seem to react at all.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day turned out to be quite normal.<p>

Conan acted like nothing happened, just like this strange morning never existed and slowly Ai came to the conclusion that he maybe just had a bad day and that it won't mean anything at all… How wrong she was, she would recognize soon enough…

* * *

><p>[Ran]<p>

It was a cold Saturday in the early December, when this woman suddenly wanted to talk to dad.

"I really need your help Mori-tantei! It's about my husband… I think he goes crazy!"

She was tall and quite beautiful. Also she couldn't have been much older than 25, but still she looked old and tired.

She started crying right there on the doorstep so Ran finally plucked up some courage and guided the hysterical woman to the sofa and brought her a cup of hot tea.

"So" dad sat down on the sofa on the opposite "why exactly do you think you husband… is going crazy?" he asked gently.

The woman sobbed and after a long sip from her teacup she could finally manage to answer him.

"Well, he… sees things, you know… strange things, like shadows which seem to watch him. And he always has the feeling of someone following him." She sobbed again and looked up to otoosan who looked back; confused.

"B…but Ojousama, couldn't your husband maybe… be right? I mean… someone maybe _is_ following him…

The woman looked at dad like he went crazy, too.

"My husband" she took an angry breath in "is a 60-years old author. When he was 30 he wrote a novel which no one remembers today! Also he is sitting in a wheelchair! And he can BEARLY leave the house! WHY should ANYONE stalk such a man?"

Even though the woman suddenly change from a cute little woman in a screaming fury everything dad could answer was "… he is 60-years old?"

For a little moment Ran though the woman would explode. Right here in otoosan's office, but then she fast interrupted "..oh.. uhm so you're Mrs. Shouta, ne? I saw you in a newscast a week ago! You said that you don't care how old Mr Shouta is because you fell in love with his novels years ago, right?"

Everyone looked at Ran and then over to Mrs Shouta who tried her best to calm herself and you nearly could cut the atmosphere with a knife as Mrs. Shouta finally answered "yes… that's me."

Mrs Shouta started to explain how she met her husband and that the strange behavior of her husband started 2 weeks ago and then, 2 hours later, Kogoro-otoosan promised her to visit her the next day and see if her husband got stalked, or not.

"Could it be true…" Ran asked when Mrs. Shouta left the office "… can some just _go crazy_?"

Ran was confused. While Mrs. Shouta talked about her husband her voice sounded so loving… but was that a reason? Can love survive madness?

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

/That same day at Agasa-hakase's house/

Edogawa-kun came over that evening checking his mails and chatting with Agasa-hakase; usually Ai was not interested in his investigation-stuff, but that evening she couldn't help it, she just had to listen to what hakase and he were talking about.

So silently she hid behind a corner, she couldn't see them, but she could hear them well enough.

"So this woman, Mrs Shouta, wants Mori-san to find out about her husband going crazy?" Ai could hear the deep voice of Hiroshi Agasa ask.

Silence. Maybe Edogawa-kun had nodded.

"What do you think Shinichi, is this Mr. Shouta stalked by someone?"

"Dunno" Conan mumbled "maybe, maybe not, I'll find out about it, right?"

"Aren't you curious about it? I mean someone just going crazy sounds pretty interesting…"

Ai could hear some sort of engine; he must have started working on one of his invention again.

But now she couldn't hear Conan's answer, he was talking pretty quietly.

For a second she wondered if he knew she was overhearing their conversation, but then she remembered that Conan was always talking quiet softly.

She pressed her body closer against the wall to understand at least a little more of their chat, as the hakase suddenly gasped.

"R… really Shinichi?" he sounded confused and switched off the engine.

"Yeah… just though I should tell you 'bout it" that was Edogawa-kun's voice again, sounding serious "I'm sure it's nothing, but I wanted to hear your opinion…"

Ai's stomach contracted, was that just something random about the case of this old wanna-be-detective, or was it about Conan and his strange behavior?

She pressed herself even closer against the wall, to get to hear the answer, no matter how quietly it would turn out; but suddenly she lost her balance. She tripped and had to grab the broom from beneath her. Noisy it hit the floor and she could hear Conan interrupting the conversation and walking slowly onto her.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

It had cost Conan quite an effort to talk with Agasa-hakase about this issue.

It wasn't that he wouldn't trust him, of course he does; the point was that the old man was always distressing himself about such things.

But yesterday he could feel it again and it was frightening him, so he decided to tell the hakase about it, just in case…

"Yeah… just though I should tell you 'bout it" inwardly he sighed, he would only make the hakase worry about him "I'm sure it's nothing, but I wanted to hear your opinion…"

Suddenly he could hear something hitting the floor from behind the door, something wooden.

He pressed a finger against his lips to signalize Agasa-hakase to be quiet.

Slowly he moved onto the door. _"Who is there?"_ He thought. _"Who benefits from sneaking after us?_"

Finally he had reached the corner and look around. Nothing.

"…weird" he mumbled.

"Who's there?" the hakase asked from behind.

"No one…" Conan slowly replied "just a broom lying here on the floor".

He picked it up and put it back into the corner.

"Maybe it was just draft" Agasa-hakase said.

"Hmm… yeah" Conan replied.

He looked up to the door. Closed. He looked left and right to the windows. Closed.

"… A draft…" he mumbled, while he walked back to the hakase, closing the door behind him.


	3. Investigations

_**Chapter 3: Investigations**_

[Ai]

The next day Conan, Ran, Mori-san and Ai were invited to visit the Shouta-mansion.

Ai still felt weird when she thought about the reason why she was standing here right now…

Yesterday, after her broom-accident she could escape Edogawa-kun's watchful eye, but still she felt like he knew about her "bugging-operation".

Maybe that was the reason why he popped up in her room some time later and asked her to join him and the Moris the next day to visit the Shoutas.

But still she couldn't figure out what he expects from this. Did he want to question her while they were on their little journey?

"Ai-chan come on, it's too cold to wait outside" Ran looked back at Ai, who didn't even recognized that she was left behind.

She hurried up to the others before Ran would come and take her by the hand, like she does sometimes with Edogawa-kun.

"_But she is right"_ Ai thought. December turned out be _really_ cold.

"Even though I'm not sure if "cold" just means the weather…" she mumbled.

* * *

><p>[Kogoro]<p>

Kogoro yawned, why did they have to visit the Shoutas that early?

Mrs. Shouta told him to come at 6 a. no reporter etc would find out about the Shoutas having problems.

Kogoro hadn't really understood why reporter should care about an author no one knows anymore, but after Mrs Shouta's little tantrum he didn't want to annoy her.

Also he couldn't really understand why they had to be so many people!  
>There were him, sure; Ran, ok; Conan, as always; but for some reason also this little girl which lives with Agasa-hakase.<p>

Yesterday Conan just came home and told him he'd like a friend of his to join them.

First Kogoro wanted to give him a tongue-lashing about that he isn't some sort if baby-sitter, but then he remembered Ran worrying about Conan being that impassive at the moment, so he decided that it would be ok, even though he didn't understood it; Conan never seemed to care too much if his _friends_ were around or not, sometimes Kogoro had wondered if those kids were actually his friends or just some sort of appendage for him.

He sighed _"to be honest, who cares? He is a little boy; his life is probably 3-times easier than mine."_

Kogoro opened up the giant front door.

This was really a mansion!

"Mori-tantei" Mrs. Shouta was smiling, "thanks for visiting us that early."

She asked some sort of butler to take care of the coats and guided them over into a huge living-room where they all sat down.

"So" Kogoro cleared his through "can we now meet your husband?"

"…uhm…d-do you like some tea?" she asked nervously.

"uhm… what? But I wanted to know what's about your husband" Kogoro asked

Mrs Shouta blushed "eeto… " she giggled a bit "to be really honest… uhm he isn't here at the moment."

"WHAAAT?" Kogoro shouted.

After that Mrs Shouta started to explain them that her husband is away, he went to a doctor.

"B…But you said he'd barely leave the house" Kogoro said confused.

"Uhm, yeah…" again she giggled nervously "and this is one of these barely reasons, why he has to leave the house."

Mrs. Shouta stopped giggling as she saw the paralyzed look on Kogoro's face.

"B-but" she hastily said "you could take this chance and look around the house, maybe you find something useful."

* * *

><p>[Ran]<p>

Finally dad decided to look around the house, grumping about a wasted morning.

Well, at least it was _his_ job, not Ran's. So it was _her_ wasted day, but she had to join him 'cause Conan was always quite interested in dad's job and investigations…

So she gotta join them, watching that Conan won't be drawn in some sort of super-bloody-crime… not that she ever could avoid him being drawn in such a case, but still she felt like trying it, though.

By the way… _where_ the hell was Conan-kun?

Annoyed she started looking around and sighed.

"_Why does he always get lost?"_

She walked out of the room "Coooonaaaan-kuuun? Where aaaaare youuu?" she shouted.

"Coooonaaaan?"

While Ran went shouting through the whole mansion she had no idea that Ai and Conan where just some yards away, having their own problems.

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

Kudo-kun had vanished, of course, even before this Kogoro Mori agreed to have a look through the mansion.

She had followed him for 2 reasons.

She really didn't want to spend the time alone with Ran-san.

It wasn't that she disliked her, she just looked a lot like Akemi; so ever time Ran was near Ai could feel those dark memories crawling back into her mind.

She couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was wrong with Kudo…

She had really thought something bad was going on. But now that he was just investigating in this case like he always was, she slowly started to laugh about herself.

"_I just have seen too much horrible things, too many people changing, so I maybe have become kinda over-cautious"_ she thought.

"Weird" Conan's voice suddenly pulled Ai back into the real life she looked up.

The moment she looked up she felt a little confused, they were standing in a huge bedroom. There were a lot of books, a red armchair, a desk and of course a giant bed. This had to be Mr. Shouta's room.

"What's weird?" she asked, looking around for something _weird._

As always Conan didn't answer. He kept his knowledge secret, still inspecting the room.

He went from the telephone, standing beneath the bed on a little table, over to the window and finally stopped his journey at the bed where he kneeled down and crawled under it.

Ai sighed.

"You know how foolish that looks?" she asked sarcastic. No answered.

She slowly went over to the bed, kneeling down.

"Usually there are always some monsters under an old bed like this" smirking she raised the bedcover to see what was under that bed.

She could only see Edogawa-kun, inspecting the floor with his watch-light.

"_No monsters… right?" _she thought. Then Conan suddenly lay down on his back, tucking the light between his teeth and inspecting the bed.

Ai smirked and let the bedcover sink down to the carpet again. She liked it to see him like that, to be very honest. He was all gone, away in his own world of logic and thoughts, of course she would never tell him so…

She got up. _"Maybe I should have a walk through the garden" _she deliberated while she left the bedroom, with the huge bed and its monsters, wherever they might hid.


	4. Roses and thorns

_**Chapter 4: Roses and thorns**_

_This chapter contains a huge dialogue and some monologues… Maybe the longest I ever wrote in English, so pls forgive me if there are some wrong or strange parts ^^ Anyways enjoy reading, from now on I will slowly bring up some romantic parts :3_

_Btw seems like I'm quite fast ^^ since I caught a cold I've a lot time to write, so the next chapter will most likely be published by tomorrow!_

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

She reached the garden some minutes ago and really enjoyed being there. Every inch was covered with different flowers, trees or other plants, even in this cold time of the year everything seemed to bloom.

She walked through this cold, green paradise and then, when she walked around the corner of the huge mansion, she could see him, Conan.

He was kicking up an old looking football in the gateway of the mansion, looking thoughtful.

"What are you doing here tantei-kun?" she asked, walking up to him.

He seemed a bit surprised, but of course he didn't drop the football, he caught it with his foot, cleverly as always.

"Oh, Haibara, I didn't recognize you, gome" he said looking at her, still having that thoughtful look in his eyes.

"You're charming as always" she responded "but that's no answer to my question, really".

Conan kicked up the ball and caught it with his head and started to balance it there "What I'm doing here? Nothing really, just killing the time with this ball I found till Ojisan is done with his _investigations_, if you want to call it like that."

"And what's about your _investigations_?" she asked and smirked, pronouncing "investigations" just as derogatory as he did before.

Conan stopped groping around to keep the ball in balance and grip it as it fell down.

"Done" he said without a trace of emotion and as he saw Ai's surprised look he added "Mr Shouta isn't madder than anyone else, he gets really stalked".

"B…but why… how do you know that?" Ai finally asked; she got used to tantei-kun's skill to solve any case, but this? They were in this mansion for maybe half an hour and he already knew what was going on!

Conan's answer was just another sneer "My, my Haibara his whole room was filled up with hints, how could you overlook them?"

Ai felt the anger crawling up her through, he was oh so brilliant and she was the dumb little girl again? She really wanted to say something mean to wipe away this stupid smile of his, when she saw his sapphire eyes sparkling up to her. The same sparkles which came up to them every time he could prove that he was much cleverer than anyone else. It seemed to be a 180° turn to the expression she saw in these eyes some seconds ago… this foreign look that was somewhere too far for her to reach.

"Are you… ok?" she asked hesitantly.

He raised an eyebrow "Sure, why should I be not ok?" He threw up the football again and started catching it with his foot and kicking it up again.

"_Yeah…"_ Ai though "_why should he be not ok… He… No!"_ Ai finally plugged up some courage.

"_He really behaves strange. No matter how often he pretends to be ok, something is wrong, I can feel it and now it's my turn to find out about it."_

"It's just that" she begun and hugged herself against the cold „sometimes it looks like you're somewhere else, in your mind…" she felt stupid, this was nor her cup of tea, neither was it like her to talk about his or her feelings to Conan, but she just had to make sure what was happening here.

"You know" she started out again "you looked worried and not _worried_ like you worry about a stupid case, no I mean _worried_ like a _normal_ person."

The Ai within her, the Ai that wanted to make sure about Edogawa-kun being ok, sighed _"well done"_ this Ai seemed to say _"of course he will open up to you know that you had to tease him again"._

But to Ai's very surprise he smiled "funny that you mention that now…" he said and turned his face away from her „I just felt a little… bored, you know? But now that I could tell you about that new case, I feel better".

Ai couldn't see the look in his eyes, his face was still turned away from her, was he honest about that, or was he just making fun about her? His voice sounded serious…

"_Go on!"_ her inner Ai seemed to push her _"if you could be nice to him, just this time, he'd maybe tell you what he's worried __about__."_

"Typical" she replied and shrugged "just a solved case rubbed in the face of someone else can cheer ya up".

He looked up to her again "yeah, yeah maybe" he said smiling. Ai turned around, walking away.

"Gome" she murmured as she was sure he couldn't hear her anymore "that's just a lot more like me".

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

His eyes were still glued to the place where Ai stood, while she was already gone. He thought; again.

But this time about something else.

He had told her the truth, the moment he could tell her about the case this horrible boredom let go of him. Some minutes ago he was just waiting for Kogoro to go back _home _but now… he even felt a little like walking back into the mansion, helping Kogoro to see what Conan saw. But first he had to figure out what was going on.

Ai was right, of course; something was wrong, the things that he could feel where really happening…

Even Ai recognized.

But it was too early for him to talk to her about it, she would be scared and he didn't want anyone to become scared. Yeah, it was definitely too early_… "or too late…"_

He wasn't even talking about it to the hakase. He wanted… yesterday eve, but then they got interrupted by this strange sound and he decided to tell the hakase a poor excuse to get out of it.

"_This sound"_ he suddenly wondered _"was that Haibara, too? How long did she know that something is wrong? Maybe… longer then myself?"_

He rolled the football from one foot to the other. But there was something that _really_ made him think.

More than the strange things happening during the last month, while he talked to the short-haired he felt better, just like nothing ever changed…

Conan stopped the ball with his feet and smiled _"that"_ he thought _"is at least very interesting". _


	5. Kogoro's revenge

_**Chapter 5: Kogoro's revenge**_

_Omg, it was sooo much fun writing this chapter, I was really smiling all over my face while I wrote this _

_]:D I had this idea since AGES and finally I found a chance to share it xD I hope it makes as much fun reading it as it made writing it_

* * *

><p>[Kogoro]<p>

"This was such a wasted day" Kogoro complained that same evening, back at home.

"There was just a huuuge nothing in that house, no hints, damn it, I could have used the day to re-arranged my Yoko-video-collection".

Kogoro was lying half on his desk, a can of beer, empty since ages, in his one hand looking through the room.

He could see Conan sitting on the sofa curling his lips like he wanted to say _"Alele ojisan, you didn't find __any__ hint? I found a dozed"_

These thoughts made the tantei really angry so he shouted "Ne bouya bring me a new one" he waved the empty can at Conan who gave him an annoyed glare.

"Come on" Kogoro mumbled "I'll take it as a compensation for taking you with me to this stupid dance"

"Dance?" the boy asked frowning.

"Yeah, didn't Ran-chan tell you 'bout it?"

Since the boy was just shaking his head Kogoro went on

"well Mrs Shouta promised me I could meet her husband next Saturday.

They will have some sort of ball and that'd be the perfect chance to talk to Mr Shouta without arousing suspicion.

Ran asked me to take her with me, because she said she'd love to join a real ball and we can't let you stay home all by yourself, right? So you'll join us, better be grateful" he murmured the last words and let his head sink back onto his desk "and now be a good boy and bring me a new beer."

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

He must have misheard the old tantei!

A ball? Him? Not in this life!

"B…but" he stuttered "I…yeah! I could spend the night at hakase's house."

He saw Kogoro raising his head, just for some inches; frowning.

"What's up?" he asked "you're always nuts about investigating in a case… so why don't you want to join…"

The eyes of ojisan suddenly sized up and he sneered all over his face.

"My, my, don't tell me our precious mini-Holmes can't _dance_?"

Conan glared at him "shut up" he said, forgetting for a moment that he was a cute little 7-year old, who shouldn't talk like that.

"uh… uhm" he hastily added, searching for an excuse. But it was already too late, he had annoyed the tantei in the exact wrong moment, Kogoro's eyes seemed to be filled up with all the sadism that the old tantei had collected during all the years he was inferior, this was the first moment Kogoro had spotted a weakness of Conan and of course he was enjoying it.

He curled his lips and sneered "well, seems like I found some weak spot" he said with pretended compassion in his voice. "But don't worry" he said and stood up; walking over to Conan, a devilish look in his eyes "the best way to defeat a fear is to be confronted with it" he laid his hand onto Conan's head.

Conan's stomach suddenly felt very weird, it wasn't like he was _scared_ of a dance, it was just the he _couldn't_ dance, so why should he try it? There was no sense in that. A detective shouldn't dance anyways.

"Ne, Ran-chan" Kogoro shouted over to the kitchen where Ran washed the dishes.

"Can you get the boy a suit? He should look good on this ball."

Ran's head appeared in the kitchen door, she raised an eyebrow.

"Conan-kun you want to join us? I thought you could spend the evening with hakase, I never thought you'd be interested in dancing".

Conan opens his mouth to tell Ran that staying with hakase was _exactly what he wanted_, as he suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his back. Kogoro pinched him.

"Nooo" Kogoro responded waving Conan's last chance of avoiding the ball away "a detective is where the case is, ne bouya?" he asked with a simper, still pinching him.

Conan was forced to nod slowly. After that the pain from his back vanished.

Ran beamed "sugoi! So I'll get you a nice suit. By the way Conan, you could go over and ask Ai-chan to join us, too."

Conan frowned "Why that?"

"Dunno… I just thought it'd be a nice idea, she's always locked away in the house of hakase and maybe she would enjoy such a great ball. Also you wouldn't be that alone, you can't dance when there's no one in your age" Ran smiled, like she was sure she'd do something very nice for him and Ai.

"B…but" Conan tried a last excuse.

"You've heard her boy" Kogoro said going back to his desk, still sneering "go over and ask the girl out, maybe you're lucky and she doesn't know that she's too good for you.

Oh but first go and get me a new beer."

* * *

><p>[Agasa]<p>

It was quite late when the door bell rang that Sunday evening.

Hiroshi Agasa went over to the door to let the visitor in.

"Shinichi?" he wondered when he opened up the door.

The boy looked all grumpy. With folded arms he was standing there on the doorstep, wearing a coat and gloves that the hakase last saw when Shinichi was 7… well when he was _really_ 7.

Agasa fully opened the door to let him into the warm house.

"Uhm, it's already quite cold, right?" he said just to start a conversation, but Shinichi turned around and gave him a look that was even colder than the weather outside.

"If you say so" he mumbled annoyed so the hakase didn't dare a new try to talk with him.

"Where's Haibara?" Shinichi asked some minutes later as he had gotten rid of his coat and gloves.

"Ai-kun? I think she's down in the lab… ne Shinichi what's up?" the last part Agasa had to shout, but Conan was already gone, walking down the stairs to the blonde.

"Sometimes I don't get him at all"Agasa said to himself, smiling though.

He didn't mind Shinichi's bad moods sometimes; his father, Yusaku, had them, too. Agasa just let this moods pass and sooner or later everything went back to normal. _"Maybe these bad moods now and then are an attribute of genius minds… hmm no that would mean I had them, too" _he thought chortling, but soon he stopped it.

Yeah Hiroshi Agasa really didn't mind Shinichi having bad moods, but what he mined him was that he wasn't telling him what was wrong. Yesterday he wanted to tell him, but then he came up with a weird excuse and he thought the hakase had bought it, but he didn't, he knew Shinichi far too good.

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

The young scientist was sitting down in her lab, torturing her computer with her delicate fingers.

She could type millions of number per minute without taking her eyes away from the bright monitor. This monitor was the only bright thing in this room, Ai couldn't bear any light while working, it was just another distraction, which she really couldn't use at the moment.

"Does that really make any sense to you" a voice from beneath her suddenly asked.

Ai's whole body tensed and she turned her head to see who was there.

"7548720946" Edogawa-kun was reading the first line on the monitor out loud.

"That's a code for a chemical" Ai said, trying to keep her voice calm, she really didn't want to let him see how he had frightened her.

After some moments of silence Ai gave Conan a studying look.

His blue eyes were running over the numbers she typed, was his brain trying to solve this kind of code? He couldn't try that honestly. This was no code to solve; it was a code _you have to know_ to understand it.

"Ne Edogawa-kun, what are you doing here?" she asked after some more silent seconds.

His blinked like her voice had reminded him of where he was and he turned his head to her.

"Uhm, well…" he said nervously.

"Just wanted to ask you 'bout something" he said, avoiding her look.

Wait! Was he blushing?

"You see" he begun again "it was neither really my idea, nor do I have a choice so…"

Ai raised an eyebrow "come to the point" she said. His nervous attitude started to rub off on her.

The tantei walked some steps away from the monitor so she could barely see his face.

"Would you go dancing with me?" he nearly shouted these words, so Ai could hear them clearly… but still she didn't understand them…

She knew the separated words… but in this sentence they didn't really seem to make any sense.

She blinked confused "huh? You want me to… what?" again she couldn't see the look on Conan's face, she felt like back than in the garden of the Shoutas, well just that this situation here made her head feel fuzzy.

"You understood me" his voice was in comparison to his shouted question just a whisper.

"So say _no_ and let me go" he said.

In this moment Ai suddenly understood what he said, even though she didn't had a clue _why_ he said it. _"I would do everything to see his face at this moment"_ she thought, if he was honest he must be all red, embarrassed looking around the room, where he could see nothing but darkness.

"Let's go upstairs" Ai said without any emotion in her voice.

"_This evening seems to become quite funny"_ she thought, grabbing tantei-kun's hand and pulling him with her.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

The short-haired had guided him back upstairs, not letting go of his hand.

He felt still embarrassed and angry; he would make Ojisan pay for that he decided.

But at the moment he had to deal with Haibara first. Most likely she would torture him with some smuggling looks and comments and would sent him away then, laughing.

Haibara opened the door between the stairs and the living room and a flood of light dazzled Conan.

She seemed to be able to see well enough, but he couldn't, so he had to continue holding her hand till his eyes got used to the light again.

"So" Haibara said as they reached the sofa "again, what do you want to ask me?"

Conan blinked a few times till he could see clearly again and glared at Haibara.

"You understood me very well" he said; embarrassment floating into his mind again.

"No" she said, giving him a pretended innocent smile.

He sighed and cleared his through.

"Haibara, would you go dancing with me? Next Saturday?" He clipped it short and tried hard not to look into her pigeon blue eyes.

"Sure" she replied and he gaped at her in confusion.

"Huh?" he asked.

"S-U-R-E" she said to make it clear.

"I don't have plans for Saturday yet and I wasn't dancing for ages" she added curling her lips to a little smile.

After that Conan started explaining her why he had to ask her, in the end he said:

"You see, I didn't really have a choice".

Ai twisted her mouth "Yeah I see, it must have been a pain to ask me"

"Yeah" he nodded, happy that she understood him, but then he realized what he had said"…wait! N…no, I mean it was just a bit… unusual, I mean…"

Ai waved her hand a bit "drop it"

Conan felt bad, did he hurt her?  
>"Uh, b… but it's still a "yes", right?" he asked gently.<p>

The blond girl nodded "what I still don't get is, why you had to make it that complicated"

He frowned "huh?"

"I mean, you just could have told me Ran-chan wants to invite me to a ball and coincidentally you're there, too"

Conan suddenly felt really dumb "why haven't I thought of this?"he dropped his dead.

Ai snickered "well but you decided to ask me out on a date, fine with me".

Conan looked up again "that's not a date" he replied annoyed.

Suddenly Agasa-hakase entered the room "who has a date?" he asked confused

Ai sneered "Edogawa-kun and I"

The hakase gave them an examining look

Conan blushed "No we're not!"

Hakase laughed "my, nice for you Conan-kun"

Conan smiled his annoyed smile "why is that only good for me?"

Ai got up from the sofa and shrugged "dunno, maybe 'cause I'm a good catch compared to _someone_ else"

Snickering she went back to her lab and Conan couldn't get rid of the thought that he was right considered his premonition of her smuggling looks, comments and the laughing.


	6. The Phantom of the MoriDetectiveAgenci

_**Chapter 6: The Phantom of the Mori-**__**detective-agency**_

_You got some romantic parts (more will follow, don't worry x3), you got some funny parts (I hope) and now it's time for the madness to make it's occurs ]:} _

* * *

><p>[Ran]<p>

The last days weren't really easy for Ran.

She recognized Conan changing his behavior weeks ago, but now, 3 days after they decided to go to the ball together it was getting really scary.

So while she sat there alone in her room that Wednesday eve she elected to call Shinichi.

First because she hadn't talked to him for ages and second because he seemed to understand that little boy quite well.

So Ran grabbed the phone and dialed his number.

For a little moment she had the feeling like she could hear something ringing in the house, but then Shinichi's voice appeared and she forgot about it.

"H… hi Ran?" Weird he sounded kinda exhausted.

"Yeah it's me Shinichi, say did you run or something? You sound a bit breathless."

"Uhm" she could hear him calming his breath "nooo, no I'm ok," he laughed his nervous laughter "s… so, why are you calling me that late?"

"Gome, I didn't want to bother you during your _very important_ investigations" she pouted.

"Come on" his voice turned gentle "what's up? You're sounding worried."

She smiled satisfied "well, yeah I'm really worried, it's about Conan-kun, you see…"

"C…Conan-kun?" he sounded surprised.

"yeah… well I really don't know how to say that… damn it I'm really worried"

Ran's voice cracked a bit.

"What's up, are you ok?" Shinichi sounded worried, too… But why was he asking how Ran was? Shouldn't he worry how _Conan_ was?

"I… I'm ok" she said slowly "it's just that… he behaves weird. He comes home late, well ok he did so before, but when I ask him where he was, usually he tries to come up with a sort of excuse, but now he just… denies it, he says he wasn't out at all…"

"But" Shinichi replied after some silent seconds "are you sure he _was_ out? Maybe you…"

"Of course I'm sure!" Ran interrupted him "I saw him leaving the house! Anyways, that's not the whole story. He changes… I mean not from November to December, I mean from 12 o'clock to 14 o'clock."

"What do you mean by that?" Shinichi's voice sounded foreign, _"does he know what's going on?"_ Ran thought.

"W… well yesterday at 12 o'clock he seemed so… far away. He also didn't cared about the crime movie on the TV, nor was he interested in otousan talking about his investigations. And then… 2 hours later he complained about waiting a week for the new edition of this crime-manga I bought him for his birthday." Ran laughed nervously "I… I mean that's weird, ne Shinichi?" her voice cracked again.

"_Don't worry"_ she calmed herself "_Shinichi will help me. He will explain why little boys act like that sometimes."_

"Don't worry" Shinichi's voice finally said throughout the phone.

Ran beamed in bliss "so you know what's up with him!"

"N… no." Shinichi said.

"No?" Ran said.

"No, but don't worry, I'll find out about it. Y… you know, talking to him and stuff… I'll call you later. See ya."  
>And with these words he hung up.<p>

Ran couldn't say how long she was just standing there, still staring at her phone.

"What's going on here" she mumbled.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

"No, but don't worry, I'll find out about it. Y… you know, talking to him and stuff… I'll call you later. See ya."

He was talking through his voice-transponder and a phone, just to pretend he was still 17.

He hung up and leaned back against the wall behind him, closing his eyes and trying to figure out what _the hell_ was going on here.

"Ne bouya are you ok?" a deep, babbling voice made its way up to his ears.

He turned his head and saw Kogoro Mori entering the house, looking all drunk.

"Uhm, yeah sure ojisan" he shouted down with his well trained, childish voice.

He walked up the stairs to the office of the Moris.

Ran won't be there, she would go to bed soon and so would Kogoro.

He would be all alone and that was exactly what he wanted right now.

He opened the door and entered the office quietly. There was no light and he didn't want to switch it on.

"_Ran said she saw Conan, well me, leaving the office… and later I said I wasn't out…"_ Conan thought.

He could remember Ran asking him where he had been last night, but he could _not_ remember being away at all.

"_Ok, calm yourself Kudo"_ he told himself. "Ran asked me that Thursday morning… so that'd mean she saw _me_ leaving the house Monday eve."

Conan tried hard to remember last Monday. He'd been to school as always and it was a real normal day in any way… And the evening? Well he had eaten his dinner and then… went to bed. Quite early, but not weird, or _scary_.

He scratched his head "there was no reason for Ran to lie about that… but _who_ did she saw then?"

He walked around through the office, if there was no football to use, walking around always helped him think.

BOOM!

Conan could hardly keep quite. He could feel agony down in his leg.

"Shit what…?" he wondered as he could feel it.

In the dark room he had hit the café table with his right leg.

He coursed again "maybe I shouldn't walk around in the darkness when I can't see at all" he mumbled and slowly tried to get up.

He could feel a bruise on his leg, but at least he could walk again.

Slowly he walked over to the light switch, carefully avoiding any further crashes.

He finally reached it and switched it on. He got dazzled right away so he had to grope back to the table, the same way he had walked to the light switch.

Sometime later he had finally reached the seating and let himself sank into the couch.

He groaned. Now that he'd tortured his leg and eyes he didn't really feel like thinking about who Ran saw and how not, but he knew he had to.

Cautious he opened his eyes and got up from the couch.

"I'm going to get myself a tea and then I'll start worrying about this phantom" he decided and head over to the kitchen.

As he reached it he immediately switched on the light and blinked confused.

There was already a cup of tea standing on the kitchen table…

"Did Ran made it?" he wondered and walked over to the cup.

"Weird …" he mumbled.

He smelled it; it was his favorite tea. Ran and Kogoro _hated_ it…

"_Maybe Ran cooked it for me"_ he toughed but stopped himself.

That was impossible, Ran hadn't been down here since hours, she was learning for an important test in school and Kogoro-ojisan was away, drinking.

Conan reached out his hand to touch the cup of tea.

It still felt warm, it wasn't steaming, but still it was warm… that means someone made a tea, not more than one hour ago and there was just one suspect.

Conan smiled nervously "where have I been during the last hour?"

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

/ in the meantime /

A lightning lightened the dark night; most people in the store gasped and some woman near to Ai even hug her boyfriend.

Ai didn't move at all, there were lots of things out there which could scare her; a lightning wasn't one of them.

"_While thinking about things that scare me" _she pondered _"I'm wondering if Edogawa-kun is alright."_

She grabbed a top from one of the outlays.

It was all pink and covered with little dogs. She sighed.

"Having such a body isn't easy" she mumbled, looking around the shop. She was standing in the children's department surrounded by tons of pink and red.

She glared over to the clothes for woman; curiously she could see a lot of pink there, too.

"May I help you darling?" a young woman was standing in front of Ai, she was wearing a name badge so Ai guessed she was working here.

She had already thought of a pert answer for the "darling" when her inner Ai piped up again.

"_Come on, you need a dress for that ball with Conan-kun, maybe she knows where you could find something without trashy little kittens on top. By the way, if you're rude to her she maybe asks where your parents are."_

Ai struggled to be as nice and cute as possible and said with a childish voice "would you do that for me ojousama? I'm searching for a nice dress for…" Ai hesitated, for what? A party; that would end up with a pink, flouncy dress.

"uh… uhm for a funeral" she said simpering.

The woman blinked confused "oh… uhm sure" the woman tried to gather herself and Ai felt quite satisfied _"looks like you can also have some fun with this childish behavior"_ she realized happily while following the woman over to a party department Ai hadn't noticed, yet.

Half an hour later and ca. 30 more of this, "I'm cute and I'm looking forward to the funeral" jokes Ai left the store, carrying a bag with a black dress and she really couldn't wait for Conan to see it.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Conan was still sitting in the kitchen of the Mori-office, still all alone, still staring at the, now cold, cup of tea.

He had made a list of the last weeks.

He wrote down all the moments when he couldn't remember where he had been or what he had done.

The first time was 3 weeks ago, he remembered himself going into the kitchen and than… a cut. The next thing he remembered was himself looking out of a window.

Then it started to happen more often.

2 weeks ago he had those cuts in his memory three times and now… this week… there was no day without cuts in it.

For example when they visited the Shoutas. He could remember investigating Mr Shouta's room and than CUT the next thing he knew was talking to Ai in the gateway.

"Shit!" he said letting the pen fall down onto the tabled.

Or today… He knew he came back from school and then… nothing, for hours, the first thing he knew was that the ringing of his mobile phone had pulled him back. But back from where?

He looked at his notes again; from three times, to every day and that in one week! And also these parts of the day he couldn't remember became longer…

What was going on here?

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't understand it.

His heart started pounding heavily against his chest, he sweat.

"I'm shivering" he mumbled and slowly got up from the table, away from the notes and over into the bath room.

He opened the spigot and put away his glasses, then he sprinkled some water onto his face, trying to calm himself.

Slowly he raised his head, feeling less dizzy, but the whole bathroom seemed to be… kind blur.

"What's up with me" he managed to say, when a numb feeling spread from his head out to his chest; then he looked up into the mirror.

He saw a blue-eyed boy with a wet face, calming his breath; slowly getting back to normal.

He straightened up and smirked into the mirror.

"That was a hard fight" he mumbled, wiping away some drops of water which were dropping down from his hair.

"But actually the winner was certain from the very beginning."

He grabbed the glasses and put them on again.

"Funny how single things like glasses can change the look that graving."

He smirked again "but at least it's the same with me." He tried a childish look and as he was satisfied he left the bath room.

He went back into the kitchen and threw away the notes he just made and poured the cold tea away.

"A single accident" he said switching out the light

"let me see everything from a totally new pint of view" he added with the childish voice of Conan Edogawa, going up laughing.


	7. A new point of view

_**Chapter 7: A new point of view**_

_I dunno if the way I wrote about Conan's madness is _interesting_ enough xD_

_I just thought it'd be nice to write it like that, so pls give me some reviews so I know if it's ok, or if I should change it around :3 thx!_

_Also a huge thank you to everyone who already reviewed my story :* it means a lot to me_

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Conan woke up Friday morning and felt good as always.

The first time he had to go to bed, last Wednesday, he felt kinda nervous. Usually he wasn't waking up, not him; he could only appeared during the day, only for some hours he could be himself.

But now? He smiled and entered the bathroom. Since two days he was fully in control.

He could hardly suppress a laughter. From some hours a day, to two days at a stretch, that was awesome.

He looked up into the mirror smiling at the blue-eyed boy who smiled back.

"My, my tantei-kun" he mumbled grabbing the toothbrush "this night back than really exhausted you, ne?"

"But don't worry" he said "I will continue your funny little play. No one suspects you, sorry, me being Shinichi" he grabbed the toothpaste "and now I have to prepare myself for school".

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

"See you Conan-kun, have a nice day in school" Ran waved while they had to walk away from each other

"See ya" he shouted back and sighed. Her naivety was nearly cute, well nearly.

His great mood from the morning was nearly gone. A breakfast as a child and an imminent day in school, all that annoyed him.

"How did you survived that during all the time?" he asked himself.

He came to the conclusion that it'd be the best to continue going to school and continue searching for the black organization. Everything would be a lot easier when he was Shinichi Kudo again.

"See? Nothing really changes; we just got a new point of view. Everyday millions of people change their point of view, nothing is special about that. Well…" he muttered "maybe I should stop saying _we_ and maybe I should stop talking to you at all." He crossed his arms behind his head "I'm not sure if you can hear me anyways."

"I hear you quite well" a soft voice said from slightly behind him.

A blonde-haired girl with blue eyes glared at him, Ai Haibara.

His whole body tensed, how much did she hear?

"Uh… uhm how long are you there with me" he asked gently

Ai raised an eyebrow "I didn't listen to your soliloquies, don't worry" she replied "and don't use this childish voice as long as I'm around" she added "it's far too annoying."

"_Yay"_ he though _"seems like I've already found a friend."_

"G…gome" he said, trying to use a normal voice, it felt a lot better.

"By the way…" the shorted-haired added letting her hair fall in her face so he couldn't see her eyes "I bought the dress yesterday."

He blinked _"dress, dress, dress"_ he scanned his mind for that word when he suddenly remembered.

"Great" he smiled "can't wait to see it".

He was sure he sounded gentle but this Ai looked at him as if he was _mad_… well hopefully not.

"Don't anyone me today" she mumbled.

He smiled, at least he found one normal, not super-happy, person around here.

"Conaaan-kun! Aiiii-chan!" a horrible high and cute voice appeared in front of them that gave Conan the chills. He could see three children waiting in front of them, Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta.

From this moment on, the day turned out really tiring.

First it was a little bit hard to pretend everything was as usual, maybe because all this memories were still poorly graded, but soon he got quite skilled in it; but then he still had to deal with these children.

He never noticed before, but there were millions of them, all surrounding him and all _screaming_…

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Five hours later they had _finally_ reached the corner again, where they had to walk away from each other.

"Bye minna-chan~" Ayumi waved, "bye" they waved back and as Ai and Conan turned around they sighed in sync.

"Hard day" he said, looking at Ai.

"As always" she nodded.

"By the way" she said and looked up to him "hakase want you to visit him after school."

Conan frowned, "why?"

She shrugged "he didn't want to tell me, I thought you'd know."

Conan thought about it _"to be honest there are dozen things he could talk about with me…"_

"Hmm no, dunno, let's see. Maybe he made some sort of new gadget for me" he smirked.

Ai's lips curled "sure, sure, _for you_, it's not like_I_ would need something to protect myself"

"You have a sharp tongue, no one would dare to attack you anyways" he mumbled.

She threw an angry look at him "shut up"

He laughed "why? It's true, isn't it?"

Ai looked him over, peering, then she smiled benignly

"Baka" she said closing her eyes, pretending to be miffed and went past him.

He watched her walking in front of him and stopped his walk.

It was quite cold and she was wearing an aquamarine coat that emphasized her body. A draft from behind them whipped up her blonde hair so he could see her eyes, which glared at him.

Ai turned around "what are you waiting for?" she asked

"N…nothing" he said, tailing after her _"indeed, the blonde has a sharp tongue"_ he thought smirking.

* * *

><p>[Agasa]<p>

It was 12:53 o'clock when Agasa-hakase could see Ai and Conan walking past his window.

"_Oh no!"_ he though Ai-kun was 2 minutes faster than usual.

Fast he swallowed the last bite of one of his favorite chocolate-cookies and hid the pack with the others in his stash.

He really honored Ai's effort for his balanced diet, but a week ago she even canceled his favorite cookies and he thought that this was a bit too much.

And usually it worked quite well, he could hide the cookies before Ai was near, but today she was two minutes too early.

Suddenly Agasa could hear a clank of a door and Ai-kun shouting "hakase, I'm back and Conan's here, too."

He walked over to his lab to pretend he was working all the time and shouted "H…hi you two. Conan, can you come over to my lab?"

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Soon Conan entered the lab "so what do you want to tell me?" he asked curiously.

The hakase turned around to him and cleared his through "well, I…"

"_like cookies"_ Conan completed the sentence in his mind and could hardly suppress a smile.

"wanted to talk to you about last week." The hakase finished the sentence himself.

"_weird"_ Conan thought _"I can't see a plate or a pack, where did he got the cookies… No wait, focus!"_

"Uhm, ok" he said "what exactly?"

"_The cookie-crumbs on his face can't be older than one hour…"_ he looked around the room _"why is he hiding the pack? Wait! Is he talking the whole time to me?"_

"…so Shinichi? Should I worry about it" the hakase finally said.

"Uhm" Conan hesitated… he hadn't a single clue _what_ the hakase said.

"N…no" he said awkward "no reason to worry" he smiled nervously.

The hakase frowned "See, I just thought that…"

"_Oh, now I see"_ Conan's mind wandered away again _"it's about Ai's diet for him. Tsk hakase she'll execute you if she finds out about it."_

"Shinichi?" the voice of Agasa-hakase pulled him back, his head felt fuzzy. "So you see I don't want to annoy you, but if something's wrong you can talk to me."

Conan blinked in confusion "sure, I see… But I'm really ok, so don't worry" he faked a smile and hid his hands behind his back, they were shivering "gotta go now, ok?"

The hakase slowly nodded while Conan had already opened the door. Hastily he grabbed his coat and left the house before Agasa-hakase could call him back.

"_If I'm lucky" _he thought_ "the hakase will think he annoyed me and will believe me that I'm really ok."_

Quickly Conan walked over to the Moris, still pondering _"why the hell couldn't I focus. I got distracted by some god damn __**cookies-crumbs**__!"_

He scratched his head, the moment he had left the house of hakase he had felt better, even the shivering had stopped. The boy entered the office of the Moris "I'm home" he said loud enough for Ran to hear him.

"Ok, lunch will be ready soon" Ran called back, but he wasn't listening.

His attention was with the TV. He could see some super-boring midday crime-movie and suddenly he understood.

He left the office and entered his room _"I see… whenever I had these cuts, it was because __he__ got interested in some sort of mystery… Back then when Ai asked me what I think about the Shouta-case… also when Ran called me… and now that he had a rest for such a long time… even some suspicious cookie-crumbs can be an incentive."_

He smiled contemptibly "not today tantei-san."

Conan straightened "you've heard Ran, lunch is waiting for me."

* * *

><p><em>At this point I want to say that I'm also getting distracted by cookie-crumbs :3<em>

_They're awesome, so pls note that I didn't want to be rude against cookie-crumbs *_*_

_My heart is made of them. ~Go, everyone cheer for cookie-crumbs now~_


	8. Devil's dance

_**Chapter 8: Devil's dance**_

_Pls note:_

_I do NOT support sexuality of/between/with children in ANY WAY!_

_If you read this chapter you should remember that Ai and Conan aren't children, they're adults they just got shrunk!_

_If you still dislike the thought of CoAi having a physical relationship I'd really advise you to skip this chapter ;P_

_Everyone else, pleas have fun ^^ (Remember this is my first T-rated story; hope it will be enough/not too much xDD)_

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

The blonde stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom of hakase's house.

She wasn't wearing make-up since she still looked like a kid, but she was satisfied with her appearance though.

The black dress was constricted from her stomach down to her waist and had a boat-neckline.

From her waist down to the floor it had different layers.

Yeah Ai really liked it. She wore some black shoes that suited the dress well and in her hair she wore a little black ribbon, what was hakase's idea she agreed with.

She went out of the bathroom where she was hit by a dozen little lightings.

"Hakase!" she shrieked.

The hakase put down the camera "gome" he smiled and turned around to put the camera away.

Ai smiled too, of course he knew it would annoy her, he did it though; maybe he wanted to make up that Ai never had someone making photos of her.

She remembered her last ball, some sort of school-party in the USA; millions of parents were taking photos of their children, of course except from her.

She wasn't really sad about it, but still it felt kinda good to catch it up now.

"He's here!" Agasa-hakase yelled from the living room.

"Here? Who?" Ai said while walking into the living room.

"uhm…Shinichi" hakase replied puzzled "why? I mean how many boys are you dating tonight?"

He chortled, Ai and hakase were making fun of this "Conan and Ai are having a date"-thing the whole week.

"No, I mean why is he _here_?" she asked while walking up to the entrance door. She opened it.

A boy with dark-brown hair and aquamarine eyes was standing in front of her.

He wore a dark green-blue suite, a white shirt and a red tie; he was just looking at his watch as Ai opened the door.

"Konbanwa" he said looking up to her, smiling.

"Konbanwa" she replied slowly.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asked him.

He blinked in confusion.

"Picking ya up… why? Am I too early?" he asked and glared at his watch again.

"No, it's just that… I didn't expect you to _pick_ me up."  
>He laughed "What should I let you do? Walk over to me?"<p>

She still gave him a puzzled look so he added "See, it'd be dangerous to let you walk all by yourself; it's already dark outside."

She blinked.

He sighed, curled his lips to a smile and grabbed her hand "see you later hakase" he shouted pulling Ai gently out of the house.

"Have a nice date minna" the hakase shouted back and chortled again.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

"_1:0 for the new point of view"_ he thought happily.

Of course the _old_ him had never thought about picking Ai up, she was right about that, but he did, so what was wrong about that?

"_You have to admit that we wouldn't hold her hand right now if we would do what you want tantei-san"_ he teased himself, walking over to the Moris where Kogoro and Ran would wait for them.

Yeah Conan was quite satisfied with this _mistake_ he made and he was still satisfied while they were sitting in silence in Kogoro-ojisan's rented car, site by site, and also when they reached the Shouta mansion.

* * *

><p>[Ran]<p>

"Sugooiii!" Ran beamed when they had entered the huge ballroom of the Shouta mansion.

She was wearing a white dress with a red sash tied around her waist up to her neck.

"I've never seen such a noble party" her eyes sparkled "and all these people here, they look really elegant, nee Ai-chan do ya like it?" she said and smiled at the little, blond girl.

Ai nodded even though she didn't really look happy.

Ran was a bit disappointed; she'd really hoped that this ball would cheer Ai up like it would do with most of the girls Ran knew, but Ai was different, even for such a nice party she choose a complete black dress.

"_I won't give up"_ she decided happily _"maybe Ai needs just someone to care for her."_

"Well I want you all to behave yourself!" otousan said suddenly "I have something important to do" he smoothed his tie.

For a moment Ran was quite proud that her dad was so serious about his job for the Shoutas, but then she noticed where Kogoro was looking at.

"Otousan, you can't be serious!" she said sharply, but it was too late.

Her dad already walked up to a crowd of young woman near the buffet.

Ran sighed "otousan, young woman and a buffet; that's no good compound at all."

After a moment of thinking she moaned "well, Conan Ai have fun I have to babysit him again" and with these words she traced after him.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

"Typical" Conan sighed "he will never change at all".

"Yeah, looks like" Ai mumbled turning around, getting lost in the crowed of people.

"…_Somehow I get the feeling this won't turn out how expected"_ Conan thought annoyed and looked around the ballroom.

It took him nearly 15 minutes to find the short-haired in that bunch of people.

Finally he saw her sitting at a table near the buffet, sipping at a glass of water her eyes glued to the dancing group.

He walked over to her, sitting down on a chair opposite to the girl who didn't notice him.

For some time he just enjoyed looking up to her who seemed hypnotized by the dance, finally he spoke.

"You should try it yourself, seems to be more fun than just watching."

Her body tensed; surprisingly calm she turned her head up to him.

"_You try to hide it, but I scare you, ne?" _he thought.

"Pardon?" she asked, her sapphire eyes narrowing onto him.

"Try-it-your-self" he said plainly.

She grimaced "yeah sure" she replied with a sarcastic voice and dropped her head on her hand, watching the dancing people again.

He rolled his eyes "Come" he said grabbing her hand, pulling her away from the tabled up to the dance floor.

"Mata!" she gasped struggling. The astonished look in her eyes made Conan smile.

Finally they reached a corner of the dance floor which wasn't drowned with people; he turned her around so they stood face to face.

"And now?" she asked strained looking around.

He smirked "give me this" he said gently and took her right hand with his left.

"_Haibara is that a hint of red on your cheeks?" _he thought, ignoring the fuzzy feeling in his tummy.

"And now lay your hand on my shoulder" he directed her and placed his hand on her waist.

He gulped, it wasn't as easy as he had expected.

Since she didn't seem to react he took her left hand and put it on his shoulder himself.

"And what now?" she asked, trying to keep her voice sober as ever, but he could sense of strain in it.

"Dance" he directed gently, but he could feel a hint of tense in his voice, too.

The whole room was fulfilled with the sound of an old waltz, it wasn't really slow but ok.

Bluntly they started to join the dance.

"It's not that bad, right?" he asked with a quavering voice just to kill the silence.

Her eyes, which she had hardly tried to concentrate on something else but him, suddenly seem to inspect his face inch by inch.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice cool as always.

"Uhm…" he said, starting to sweat "I'm dancing with you"

"I know" she said annoyed "but _why_?"

She looked up to him, her eyes narrowed and… worried?

He gulped and tried to avoid her look.

"No special reason" he lied "I mean that's what you normally do when you're on a party, ne?" he laughed nervously.

"Drop it!" she interrupted him pissed "I don't get you. You pick me up? You _dance_? You?"

He opened his mouth to answer but she went on griping.

"I mean are you boozed? This Shouta-man is just over there" she jerked her head over to an old man sitting in a wheelchair near Mrs Shouta.

"First I thought that should be some sort of red-herring for Mori-san but she isn't even around at the moment, she looks after this womanizer of a detective, so what's up?"

He gulped and tried to avoid her look.

"_Shit"_ he thought, he couldn't tell her the truth; he couldn't tell her that he was avoiding any sort of mysteries at the moment to keep in control.

Ai turned her head away from him again.

"_She knows I'm hiding something from her, she knows it. But why isn't she questioning me a little bit more? Does she want me to open up to her on my own?"_

All this thoughts were flying around in his head as she suddenly spoke.

"It doesn't matter anyways, right?" she kept her voice low.

Surprised from this gentle but worried sound he looked down to her,_ "how small she is"_ this thought just popped up in his mind as she looked up to him, too.

A smile. He blinked confused. It was some sort of sad-understanding smile that curled her lips for the part of a moment, and then she looked down; not away from him; just at the part of his body that was on the level of her eyes as the music slowly faded.

The next song started right away and he could feel her delicate hands pressing softly against his to let go of them. He kept his hands closed, without force but he wouldn't let her vanish like that.

The following waltz was a lot slower but he started to dance anyways and felt reviled when he could feel Ai moving, too.

"Sorry" he mumbled without any emotion.

Now it was Ai who blinked confused and looked at him.

"Huh?" she asked.

"I can't tell you what's up…" he said, a feeling of true sorrow in his mind "…not yet."

She continued looking at him with these water-like eyes.

"So that's why I feel sorry" he finished his explanation.

"_I can't believe that I'm honest, but I am"_ he thought. He wasn't used to those feelings but they appeared, from the first sight when he met the blonde.

"_Maybe"_ he hoped _"maybe when you know me better, you'll understand it. But now it would just upset you."_

He looked at her again, there was still a confused look on her face but then, finally, she nodded curling her lips and he felt a lot better.

"Ok, thanks" she replied with this low voice, but this time it sounded eased.

Conan started to relax, too.

He'd finally built up some sort of connection to her… now he maybe could go on…?

The thoughts on his mind were flipping, he toyed with an idea…

Slowly he slide his hand from her waist to her lower back.

He could feel her sucking in some air, but she wasn't stopping him so he slowly applied some pressure onto her back.

Slow. Very slow she started to give in; she made some deliberate steps closer to him and slide her hand from his shoulder down to his chest.

As they were just one or two inched away from each other he could feel his heart pounding hard against his chest, nervously he looked around the room, he was sure he couldn't stand her look right now.

Everywhere around them couples were dancing with each other, some were laughing but most just hugged each other.

Conan closed his eyes and turned his head back to Ai and suddenly he could feel it.

A little beating, hardly more than a pounding pressing against his hand trough her back and then he could even hear it.

Ai's heart was beating fast, faster than his. He looked down to her, her eyes were closed, her cheeks rosy.

Conan curled his lips to a smile and pulled her the last inches close to him until he could feel her warm face on his chest and her body on his.

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

Ai's whole body was tensed. She felt like preparing for an escape.

As soon as he would make a wrong move she would run.

"_But I don't want to."_

She was terrified of him.

"_My heart beats really fast…"_

Either he was using her for some sort of stupid dodge, or something was _really_ wrong.

"_I don't care."_

All these different thoughts were running through her mind as she danced aside the boy she had thought she knew.

"_I can't be that wrong about him" _she pondered_ "of course, this must be some sort of dodge. If not for Ran then maybe for her father, or maybe even for this Shouta."_

Slowly her mind calmed down.

"_I wouldn't be too surprised if he's just watching Shouta-san, waiting for the perfect moment to run up to him and solve the case, or rescue him or anything like that."_

Satisfied with her conclusion she started to relax. She laid her head back onto his chest.

"_If he uses me for something stupid like that, I can at least have some fun"_ she thought smiling.

Every moment he would pull his arms away from her; she would struggle because she would be surprised, no matter how long she knew he'd do it.

But why were they still dancing?

Suddenly she could feel his muscles move.

"_Now!"_ she prepared herself for the cold that would replace the warmth of his body every moment; nothing happened.

But contrariwise she could even feel something warm _appearing._

He had laid his head onto hers.

Her body started to tense again, but it didn't really work she enjoyed this feeling way too much.

"_Stop enjoying it"_ she told herself, feeling anger crawling up into her mind _"he uses you!"_

"Ne Kudo-kun" her voice sounded still gentle _"I'm so stupid!"_

"Hm?" she could hear the sound through her head, so his head really lay on hers.

"Just stop it; go and solve your case now or I'm getting bored."

She could feel his face grimacing, but was he smiling or looking shocked? She couldn't see it; again his face was hidden.

"Weird" his voice sounded _amused_ and she could feel him raising his head a bit.

"For someone who's getting bored your heart's beating way fast." He said with a foreign low voice.

Heat was creeping up her face.

"_He is making fun of me! First he's using me and now he's making fun of me?"_

Ai had always known that Conan was a bit rude when it came to talking to woman, but he never had been cruel, not till now.

She was just wondering if she should cry or inure him seriously as she recognized him lowering his head until it was right beneath her ear.

"So stop lying to me, would you? Because…"

He stopped talking to breathe in what gave Ai the chills.

"… I won't go anywhere."

Ai's eyes widened.

The music faded and for a moment the whole world seemed to keep quite.

Deliberately she turned her head around to see his face.

He watched her, a serious look in his eyes.

Then he smiled, and raised his hand.

Ai was still scared, but she was still far too paralyzed to make a single move.

He laid his hand onto her face, wiping away something wet right under her eye, slowly moving his head close to hers.

"_Am I crying?"_ Ai though, while she watched him coming closer

He touched her lips with his hand and then slowly with his lips.

"_I'm really stupid"_ she decided, kissing him back.

She could feel his hand deliberately sliding up from her cheek to her hair.

"_It was no dodge at all…"_ she slide her second hand down to his chest, too.

His hands where now slowly pulling her closer and she was still returning his kiss.

"… _he is mad and I have no chance to escape; not that I want to anyways."_


	9. The forgotten tantei

_**Chapter 9: The forgotten tantei**_

_Ok this chapter was really difficult to write, so sorry that it took me that long x.x_

_Seriously, it was more difficult than any mad chapter I'm going to write o.O_

_Conclusion: Nothing is "madder" than this chapter in CoAi's life…_

_I just hadn't a single CLUE how Conan and Ai would behave in such a situation, but I'm glad I finished it now ^^ I think it's ok and I hope you are satisfied with my work :3 enjoy!_

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

23:43 o'clock… Haibara Ai raised her hand for the third time, ready to knock on the door... but she gave up again, she dropped her head.

How the hell should she talk to Agasa-hakase tonight?

She was sure she looked totally different, she just had to, how could she look the same after _this_ evening?

A grin crawled up her face _"stop smiling!"_ she told herself and calmed her breath.

She finally managed to knock on the door and waited for the hakase to open it. He locked it, because she told him it could be late till she gets home.

Ai looked around; the darkness of the night that usually seemed to surround her was quite different today. It seemed to keep the distance between them like it does with the lanterns around.

Then she could hear some leisurely steps behind the door followed by the lock snapping open, which brought her attention back to the house.

"Hi Ai-kun" the hakase was wearing a brown pajama and gave her a tired smile.

"Hi" she said shortly "sorry to wake ya up" carefully she avoided his look.

"Did you have fun?" he asked "just wondering, why your grinning like a Cheshire cat…" he added.

Fast she covered her lips with her hand.

Agasa-hakase raised an eyebrow "and you're all red…"

She gave him an angry look "no, I'm not" she said, still hiding her mouth, feeling her ears burn hot.

"You are!" he said with his curious voice as she walked past him "so what's up?"

"Nooothing!" she shouted, vanishing in her room.

"And when I say I'm not then I'm NOT!"

She closed the door and sighed.

_"This"_ she thought, touching her lips with a finger _"was the weirdest evening I ever had, and I grew up in an organization full of people who kill each other."_

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

The next morning when Ai walked into the bathroom a smiling girl was looking up to her from the mirror, she answered her smile with a cold look.

_"Yesterday was…special"_ she decided _"now it's the day after yesterday and everything is as it was before."_

She dressed up and walked out to have some Sunday-breakfast with the hakase as she could see him.

He sat at the table sipping at a cup and reading the newspaper "Edogawa-kun?" she wondered out loud.

He looked up and smirked "ohayo."

She glared at him and grimaced, he must have planned to catch her during breakfast and she was just going to fall into this trap.

She went past him, trying to avoid his look.

"Ohayo" Agasa-hakase came out of the kitchen giving her a bowl of rice.

She just nodded and started to eat.

"How did ya sleep?" Agasa asked, smirking all over the face.

She stopped herself and with the chopsticks still in her mouth she turned her head around to him, frowning.

"Ok" she mumbled slowly and started to eat again.

"Great" he replied, his voice seemed to suppress a laugh.

She looked up and saw Conan smirking.

"What's up?" she asked annoyed.

"Nothing" he answered, giving Ai a provoking look.

Agasa-hakase looked at the all grown up children; Ai killing Conan with her eyes and Conan smirking up to her.

"Stop that!" Ai said angrily.

"What?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Smiling!" she replied "it's not funny at all!"

"For me it's quite amusing" he answered and took a sip from his cup again.

Ai opened her mouth to give him an angry answer as hakase suddenly interrupted the two.

"Minna, come on, stop behaving like kids"

"But he/she began!" Ai and Conan said in sync pointing at each other.

Hakase suppressed a laughter.

"Ok, I let you figure that out on your own" Agasa-hakase began "uhm, I mean, I have to look for the…thing…in the kitchen…" and mumbling more of these excuses he vanished and left them alone.

"What are you doing here?" Ai finally asked annoyed.

The boy leaned back; he seemed to enjoy this situation "just thought I could have some breakfast with you" he replied shrugging.

She threw an angry look over the table "you're such a child" she said sharply and got herself up and walked away from the table.

"I'm the child?" he asked, suddenly sounding serious. "You're the one who's avoiding this talk."

"Talk?" she turned around to him "then go on and talk! I'd love to hear what you want to tell me, but stop smirking for god's sake."

He sighed and after some silent seconds Ai turned away again, ready to walk away.

"Yesterday" he started out "I was serious about it."

She stopped herself.

"It was no joke or stuff like that… So I don't get what you're angry about."

Ai didn't move she was trying to figure out if she could believe what she was hearing right now, or if he was only making fun about her… but why should he?

The whole situation seemed just so unusual, so unbelievable to Ai, as suddenly a hand grabbed her arm.

She turned her head and saw him giving her a gentle look "seriously" he said.

She shook her head.

"Seriously!" he repeated and she kept shaking her head.

_"What's happening here?"_ she asked herself and tried to get away from him.

He went on holding her hand and wiped away some wisps of her hair.

"How can you be _serious_?" she asked very low.

He tried to catch her look "dunno, I just am… I mean… do you regret it?"

Ai let some moments pass, she felt _insane_ then she slowly shook her head.

She saw him smiling "see, same with me. Actually I think it was one of the smartest things I've ever done."

Ai raised her head up to him and he kissed her "and my mind came up with a lot of brilliant stuff, you know? So that means a lot" he said with a little laughter in his voice and this arrogant attitude she knew pretty good. But this time it was linked to this gentle smile she'd never seen till yesterday; and somehow she liked it.

She smiled and softly pushed him away "baka" she said, walking over to the table again "baaakaaa!" she repeated, enjoying the happiness in her voice.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

It was the next morning, time to walk home from school with the kids and Conan was just giving the strawberry-blonde an annoyed look.

"I was just saying" he began "that fortunetelling is a great way to make stupid people pay you for nothing!"

The blonde sighed "and how do you explain all the prophecies which actually _happened_?"

"Luck" he said shrugging.

"Luck? You don't believe in luck, you baka-tantei"

"Gotta go minna-chan" Ayumi said looking at her fighting friends and gave them a sometimes-you're-behaving-like-kids-too-look "bye."

Waving the three children walked away from Conan and Ai.

Ai made a step close to Conan and took his hand "I thought they'd never leave."

He smiled "Right, I know we said we should continue acting like nothing happened, but was this "baka-tantei" really necessary?"

Ai-chan smirked "ooh, what's up? Don't tell me I hurt your feelings" she said with faked sorrow in her voice.

He looked away, pretending to pout but he ended up smiling.

_"Well why shouldn't I smile?"_ he thought _"a beautiful, sharp tongued girl is right at my side"_ and with these thoughts he gave himself a second mental point, now it was saying 2:0."

_"You'll lose this tantei"_ he assessed.

"Ne Shinichi…" the voice from his side said.

_"…first time she calls me that way"_ he recognized with a pleased warmth spreading from his chest through his body.

"…do you come over to hakase's house later for dinner?" she asked looking up to him.

Usually she would ask that, pointing out that she didn't care, but most things changed lately.

"I can't" he said "Ran is slowly wondering why I'm never eating at home recently and we must keep up appearances, right?"

The short haired nodded and seemed to be disappointed.

"Don't be sad" he tried to cheer her up.

"I'm not" she replied smirking "more of your favorite dish for me and hakase then."

She let go of his hand and walked over to hakase's house which they had just reached.

"You're mean, you know!" he shouted and saw her waving without looking back.

He curled his lips and made his way over to the Moris, actually he was really released that she wasn't mad with him, now he could focus completely on the imminent evening.

He opened the front door to the stairwell of the Mori-house and felt this feeling creeping into his mind again.

This feeling of restlessness, which only appeared near this house and its indwellers.

He opened the door to the office and plugged his head in.

"I'm home!" he shouted and saw the old tantei raising his head, he looked boozed.

He waited till Kogoro-ojisan nodded as a sign that he had been seen and closed the door again.

The boy walked upstairs where the room he was sharing with ojisan waited to give him a safe place to wait for dinner.

He opened the door to the room as he suddenly heard a female voice from behind shouting "Conan-kun?"

He winced and then vanished hastily in the room, closing the door behind him.

"Conan-kun, are you up here?" the voice was quite close now.

Conan felt stupid hiding in his room from this girl, but the restlessness grew when she was around and he knew that this was no good sign at all.

A knock on the door made his body tense again.

"Ne, Conan-kun, are you all right?" Ran-chan's voice sounded gentle but worried.

"Yeah, I'm ok" he replied with the childish voice.

Silence. He could imagine Ran standing outside his room trying to figure out what was up.

"Well…" she seemed to keep her voice happy to hide the sadness; it didn't work.

"Ok than…" she continued, the sadness in her voice growing.

For a moment he thought she would walk away but then she spoke again.

"I'm just wondering… If you're avoiding me or dad for a special reason you can tell me."

He was still leaning against the door. His back turned up to Ran, a door between them, but he could nearly feel her.

Most likely she had crouched down to meet him on eyelevel in case he walks out of the room, one hand softly on the door to feel close to him.

Suddenly he felt so sorry for her; he could release her if he was at least talking to her.

"No, it's nothing" he said his voice sounding like the voice of a stranger "don't worry, ok?"

Since she wasn't answering him anymore he wondered if she was still listening. He grabbed the handle of the door as her voice appeared again.

"Ok" she said with a low voice "we'll have dinner in some minutes, please come down then, will you?" she asked, sounding so very sad and… lonely.

He increased his hold on the door handle, ready to walk out.

_"If you would come out to talk to her face to face, she would cheer up, this sad voice would stop making you feel so sick and sorry and this horrible restlessness would stop, too."_

He really believed it, when he suddenly stopped himself, his eyes widened.

"Sure, I'll be down for dinner" he said without emotion, letting go of the handle.

Some moments followed, which seemed to last forever. He could hear her breath behind the door, nothing else. But then she finally got up and walked away, when the door of the living quarters of the Moris closed Conan finally managed to walk away from the door.

It felt like a huge magnet suddenly vanished so that the boy could move away again.

"Would you please stop that!" he said out loud, talking to the boy who had lived here some days ago.

"It's not _my_ fault that she feels so sad at the moment, it's yours! And I don't care how she feels anyways!"

His voice became louder and shaky. He knew he wouldn't get an answer, but he felt angry, far too angry to keep quite.

He put away the glasses he was wearing which seemed to become too heavy.

"Give it up! And for god's sake stop annoying me every single time I enter this house."

Now he was shouting and he felt himself shivering.

He looked around the room. He had erased everything that would remind him of a mystery; books, notes, everything! So why couldn't he calm down?

"The picture" he suddenly remembered.

_"Maybe this little picture is enough to remind him of the case of the black organization…" _he wondered and rushed over to his bag and grabbed the picture that _he_ hid; the picture that showed Ran standing beneath a 17-year old, dark haired boy he could barely remember.

_"Shinichi & Ran at the Tropical Land"_ was written on its back.

With furious satisfaction he grabbed it and threw it against the wall.

He could hear the glass splitting and with a feeling of sudden release he sat down.

He wiped the back of his hand over his face.

He gave himself some minutes to get back to normal and then he got up. Slowly he moved over to the picture that had nearly destroyed everything, grabbed it and turned it around. He saw a huge crack in the glass, the picture itself wasn't damaged, but he smiled though.

This horrible sorrow and the shivering had stopped, he felt a lot better now.

"I'll get rid of you later" he said and hid the picture in his bag again, not sure to whom he was talking to.

Then he put his glasses on again and walked down to have dinner feeling even better than before.

* * *

><p>[Ran]<p>

Ran was preparing the table for dinner.

"But he is so repellent at the moment dad… I'm sure you hurt his feelings when you teased him with the ball lately!"

When Ran came to know about her dad _making_ Conan go there she went really angry, sometimes her dad could be so cruel.

"Don't blame me" dad mumbled "he looked like he had enjoyed it, right?"

_"Right…"_ Ran thought _"I'd never thought Conan would enjoy a ball…"_

Before Ran could go on telling her dad about her worries the door opened and Conan went in.

"Mhhh, smells great Ran-neechan" he said smiling up to her and sat down on the table.

Ran glared at him, all surprised; he seemed to be absolutely ok… just like nothing had happened.

She sat down too and when her dad made his way over to them she had to bear his I-told-you-he's-ok-smirk.

They started to eat and all in all it seemed to be a normal dinner, they were even joking and she saw Conan laughing for the first time since month. She knew he had been happy when he was with the hakase, but not when he was with her. But now everything seemed to be ok again.

He even tolerated dad's stupid jokes about him dancing with Ai-chan.

But then dad said "well actually you should try to keep that girl."

Conan slowly raised his head from his rice-bowl.

"She seems to be as weird as you are" he sipped from his bear again; actually he was already quite drunk.

"Dad" Ran tried to interrupt him.

"But it's true, Ran" he continued "how many little girls are wearing black-funeral-dresses when they go to a ball?" he asked laughing.

Conan blinked, he didn't seem to understand.

"Anyways" otousan got up and wavered over to the door "I'll go to bed."

He opened the door and while he walked away he babbled something like "the weird little girl over there, living with the hakase."

Ran sighed "he can be so ridicules" she mumbled "don't listen to him Conan-kun" she smiled down to the boy when she saw him looking at the door where dad just left.

His eyes seemed to be glued to this door, but there was no emotion behind them, they seemed to be empty.

Then he slowly nodded "yeah" he said, sounding so totally different "he can be ridicules…"


	10. The trouble with the rented car

**_Chapter 10: The trouble with the rented car_**

_v.v *sigh* this chapter took me even longer, but (!) I'm satisfied with it ^^ I really tried my best this time to improve my writing style. While talking bout this… special thanks to LEP-Surface Division. He's an awesome author *_* and also he's really nice :3 So thanks to you, you're quite my idol in writing ;)_

_Btw please everyone kill me with reviews :D I need to know if you like how I changed my style_

_And now enjoy this chapter ^^_

* * *

><p>[Kogoro]<p>

The old tantei got up. His head felt like it had been smashed against a wall and it took him some minutes to keep balance before he could waver over to the bathroom.

He dressed up as usual. He was already used to this feeling cause he felt it nearly every morning he got up. _"Hangover"_ was how Ran called it _"because you're a drunkard."_

Kogoro sighed and entered the kitchen to make himself a hot cup of coffee.

_"Maybe I'm really drinking a bit too much… but I wasn't always drinking"_ he scratched his head and tried to remember a time without alcohol in his life; then he suddenly smirked.

"I always had something in my life that made me feel this way at mornings, at the moment it's the alcohol, earlier it was _her_…" he mumbled and took a sip from his coffee.

10 minutes later he left the house and took a cap. He had promised Ran that he would get up early today to rent a car for some days.

_"You can't always take a cap when we visit Mrs Shouta" _she kept telling him_ "it just looks weird and also we could use it to have vacation. We weren't away for ages."_

That was what she said… Kogoro couldn't forget about it. He knew his daughter wasn't satisfied with their life. Often he couldn't afford her having nice holidays, but she never complained about it and what he really honored her was that she stood by his side, she never even threatened him with phrases like _"I could move to mum's if I want"_ or stuff like that.

The fact that she wanted to have a change of scene right now was that she thought he and Conan could use one.

He sighed again and leaned back in the cap. The only thing Ran was talking about lately was the boy and his behavior and Kogoro saw it too; he really recognized Conan changing, but what should he do about it? He chose to be the stiff guardian for the boy and had no wish to change that.

So he decided it would be the best to listen to Ran's wish, rent the car and after he would have closed this case he would take Ran and Conan on vacation somewhere sunny and nice.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Conan opened his eyes, blinking a few times to get his eyes used to daylight again. He yawned and turned around in his bed. He didn't see any sense in getting up by now, he always woke up much too early because of _him_ snoring. He slid his hands down and pulled his blanket over his head just to escape the sunlight for some more minutes.

His mind wasn't fully awake, but he knew something was wrong with this situation. He felt a little torn; on the one hand he really wanted to go back to sleep, but on the other hand he knew this brain of a detective wouldn't stop bothering him till he'd find out what was wrong.

After some moments of pondering what to do he gave up and pulled away the blanket again. Bright sunlight dazzled him so he had to cover his eyes and finally he understood.

He slowly blinked against the brightness which forced its way through the window.

_"I've never awoke when the sun already aroused. Usually it's all dark when a loud snore of Kogoro wakes me up."_

Carefully shutting out the daylight with his hands, he glared over to Kogoro's bed. It was empty.

The boy made his way over to the bathroom and dressed up. When he entered the office some minutes later Ran's smiling face welcomed him.

"Ohayo!" she chirped happily and wavered over to the kitchen "breakfast will be ready in some minutes."

"Ok…" Conan replied slowly "ne Ran-neechan, where did Kogoro go?"

The girl plugged her head out of the kitchen and beamed "he went to rent a car. I thought it'd be a good idea… you know so we could have some holidays as soon as this Shouta case is closed, what do you think? It must have been ages since we had some nice trip to somewhere else?"

Conan just nodded, he wasn't even sure if he had understood what Ran said about holidays, but she seemed satisfied and kept smiling during breakfast. No, Conan didn't care about her plans for hiatus; there was something that caught his attention. Something that brought an idea to his mind and this idea made him smile for his own reasons.

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

"Shinichi, did you listen to me?" the shorted haired could nearly see his mind suddenly returning to reality, so his answer was no surprise to her.

"Uh, n… no, not really" he laughed but dropped it right away when he saw the look in the eyes of Ai "g… gomen."

She sighed. He had been like this through the whole day; so _far away_…

"You see…" he started to explain and let his eyes wander away again; they seemed to glare at something in front of them; something Ai wasn't able to see, yet.

"… I still have something to do, something important. I'll call you as soon as it's done". He smiled while he said it and he kept smiling while letting go of her hand and running away, but still Ai could sense an undertone of seriousness.

_"Funny how he said 'as it's done' … makes him kinda sound… criminal"_ she smiled over her own absurdity and slowly she raised her hand up to her face; the hand he kept holding for the last minutes. _"and still…"_ she thought glaring at the point of the crowd of people where she guessed Conan to be _"he somehow reminds me of someone I knew once. Even though I don't know of who exactly."_

With a disturbing feeling and her hand pressed against her chest she made her way home to hakase, alone as usual.

* * *

><p>[Kogoro]<p>

"Tousan!" Ran's voice forced Kogoro's eyes away from the TV and his beloved Yoko. He sighed and looked up to his daughter who was standing in front of him, having her arms akimbo.

"Didn't you want to have another look around in the Shouta mansion?" he dropped his head.

He knew she was right, he'd promised Mrs Shouta that he wouldn't give up till he found out what was wrong with her husband.

"But I went through this mansion for 3 times now." He mumbled without raising his head from the desk, but still he could hear how Ran left the office in a disappointed way. "And there is just NO hint that would proof that Mr Shouta is nuts" he mumbled a bit louder, so his daughter could hear him.

"Or not" a childish voice added familiarly casual and made Kogoro glare through his crossed arms.

He saw Conan sitting on the sofa, still reading a book called "Cars – Yesterday till tomorrow". The boy didn't seem to have recognized he really said something, since he was still looking all lost in his book.

Kogoro pushed thoughts like _"since when is the boy interested in books about cars when there are still tons of crime-stories unread"_ away and finally raised his head to give Conan a sarcastic answer. "Oh, seems like our Mini-Holmes want to share his unlimited knowledge with us. Sure, please go on."

Conan blinked in surprise and for a moment Kogoro wasn't sure if the boy really knew he had said something and felt even a bit guilty for giving him such a rubdown when he put on his familiarly dismissive look, which seemed to be so atypical for a child, and replied "I just wanted to point out that you can't be sure if Mr Shouta is, as you call it, nuts or if he really gets stalked."

Kogoro snuffled deprecatingly and straightened in his chair to bring himself in an upper position so he could talk down to the boy, well knowing how he hated it, and put on a wisely-tone.

"Not every case contains a crime, madness as a solution may isn't satisfying, but sometimes it's the truth." The old tantei smirked to himself, how could Conan disprove such an untainted logic?

"I just mean that…"

"Except of this" Kogoro interrupted the boy "Mrs Shouta knows her husband better than all of us do and even she is convinced from his madness."

Kogoro leaned back in the chair, waiting for Conan conceding that he is wrong when suddenly the boy curled his lips and leaden back on his part. "Well, that is indeed very interesting."

The old tantei jumped up from his seat and bended forward as much as his desk allowed him to, ready to give the boy the tirade of abuse of his life. He couldn't understand how a 7-year old boy who should be just cute and good could behave that arrogant when Conan just started to explain what he was talking about.

"You see, a young woman married to a rich old man who would come into all his prosperity in case he dies… or gets certifiably insane." Conan interjected his explanation and looked up to Kogoro like he wanted to say "come on ojisan, it's not that difficult."

Kogoro was up to give the boy another sharp answer, but two things stopped him. First, Conan was right. In case of Mr Shouta's death a young widow like Mrs Shouta would be their first suspect; and second and that was the far more disturbing point. Even though Conan spoke all calm to Kogoro his whole behavior seemed so… fretful. His eyes were avoiding Kogoro's look most of the time, he was shifting around on his seat and nervously rubbing his arm, that all seemed to completely different from when the boy usually talked about a case. There was no trace of the usual self assurance and Kogoro blamed himself for that, had he really awed the boy?

"uh…uhm" he started, feeling all clueless how he should deal with this situation "but I still can't find anything in this mansion… I"

"Then just shadow Mr Shouta for a while, maybe it helps if you follow him in order to find hints against the fact that he's going crazy." Conan replied, cutting the old tantei off. He put away his glasses and rubbed his eyes which seemed to be worryingly glassy.

_"Daijoobu?"_ Kogoro asked haltingly… well at least he wanted to ask it, but Conan had made his way over to the door and left the office before Kogoro could bring himself to care about the boy.

So after some moments in which Kogoro felt unable to move, he slowly got himself up. Actually he just walked to move at all, so he walked over to the table where Conan had sat. Ran had decorated it with an advent wreath and some plastic stars, but the book Conan had left back was what caught Kogoro's attention. He picked it up and let his eyes wandered over the page the boy had read last and what he saw made him feel even guiltier and embarrassed he rubbed his hand over the back of his head. Conan had read a chapter about the car-class Kogoro had rented for the next two weeks.

"Is that his way to… care about me?" Kogoro wondered and twisted his mouth.

"Ne, Ran-chan" he shouted over to the kitchen "I'm away. I just got an idea how to get this Shouta-case solved; don't wait with dinner for me." With these words he grabbed his jacket and left the office waving good-bye to Ran who plugged her head out of the kitchen. A sudden feeling of fierce-motivation had crept over Kogoro, he really felt like solving this case now and making up for his behavior from back then.

This motivation quickened his pace out of the house, so he even ignored the vague feeling of ominous glares from upstairs. This motivation also last when he started his car and drove it out on the street and it boomed when he passed 5 green traffic lights. It didn't vanish till he reached the sharp turn halfway to the Shouta mansion and pressed his foot enthusiastic onto the brake pedal… and then again and again. But when he tried to brake for the fourth time without any effect his motivation had finally left him and so did his car with the street below; it just left it and decided to rush into the guide rail in front.


End file.
